Scarlet Pimpernel
By Baroness Emmuska Orczy
Bantam Books
264 pg.
In 1792, during the French Revolution, a figure named the Scarlet Pimpernel saved many aristocrats from the French. Using daring plots and disguises he escaped from the French and his archenemy, Chauvelin.
The main characters in this story are Lady Marguerite St.Just, Sir Percy Blakenley, Sir Andrew Ffoulkes, Chauvelin, Armand St. Just, and Mr. Jellyband.
Sir Percy Blakenley was a good-looking and well-bred Englishman. He was a young man, taller than average, broad-shouldered and massively built. To conceal his identity as The Scarlet Pimpernel he assumed the manners of a fop with a nonsensical conversation and a perpetual inane laugh. In reality, he was the bravest, most honorable, daring and intelligent man in all of Europe, who risked his life for the sake of others.
Lady Marguerite St. Just, a member of the artistic Parisian circles, was lavishly gifted with talent and beauty.
Fred Terry in The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1905
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982 film)
Scarlet Pimpernel near Cala Mondragó, Mallorca.She was thought by many to be the most beautiful and the cleverest woman in Europe. She had one fault, her unfathomable love for her brother, Armand whom she raised from childhood. She was a woman of deep emotions and unrelenting pride. This caused her much grief and anguish and despite the extent of her intelligence, she was unable to discern the events that were happening around her.
Monsieur Chauvlin was a representative of the French
Republican Government, whose duties were to find out about the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel and deliver the members to their punishment. Chauvlin was nearly forty years of age, with deep sunken yellow eyes, and a fox-like expression. Above all, he was intelligent, shrewd and clever. He would stop at nothing to attain his goal. He would use any sinister method, any cruel device, any despicable act in...